Shunt connectors are well known in the art. Shunt connectors provide an electrical connection between two adjacent electrically conductive terminal pins when the pins are inserted into the shunt. When the terminal pins are inserted into the shunt, the pins contact a conductive member within the shunt to establish electrically continuity between the pins in a known manner. Depending upon the user's requirements, the shunt may be used to provide either a permanent or a temporary electrical connection to pins on a printed circuit board or the like.
Although the use of shunts to connect multiple pins in an array of electrically conductive pins, and in particular, to connect two adjacent pins in such an array is well known, the shunts of the prior art are usually deficient in several aspects. The prior art shunts are relatively bulky. The shunts typically have a profile which is too large to be easily used in electronic equipment which is becoming smaller and smaller.
The prior art shunts are often difficult to install, and even more difficult to remove or relocate. The shunts are often applied with inappropriate tools such as tweezers or fingers and removed in a similar manner. Because of the size and fragile nature of the components, damage to the shunt or the pins often results. If a metal application or removal tool is used, inadvertent shorting of the pins may occur. This problem only worsens as the size of the components decreases.
It is also common for the conductive member of prior art shunts to come out of the insulative housing as the shunt is being removed or applied. If the contact comes out of the housing when the shunt is being removed the conductive member is left on the pins without an insulative housing. It may then be impossible to remove the unprotected conductive member, or damage to the pin field may result from the attempt to remove the conductive member. Similarly, the contact may come out of the housing as the shunt is being installed, leaving the housing around the pins, but missing the conductive member.
Finally, although it is common to attach a large number of shunts to a single pin field, often in series, the prior art shunts are typically applied individually, making application of a large number of shunts very labor intensive and time consuming.
There thus exists a need for a shunt having a low profile which is suitable for use in applications with decreasing size requirements, which is easily installed and removed without damage to itself or the pin field, and which can be applied in large numbers with relative ease.